Sweet Brown Is Suing! Says Apple and Others Used Her Catchphrases Without Permission

Sweet Brown became famous for her harrowing tale of escape from a house fire. And if anyone’s going to profit from that, it’s going to be her!

The Internet celeb aka Kimberly Wilkins is suing Apple and others in federal court for selling a song on iTunes that sampled an interview she conducted with a Seattle radio program, the Bob Rivers Show, without her permission. The result was a song called “I Got Bronchitis,” which went up hours after the interview. NewsOK quotes the lawsuit: “At no time did Sweet Brown consent or agree to have her name, likeness, voice, statements, photograph used in connection with any products, songs, video productions, merchandise, goods, advertisements or solicitations for merchandise, goods or service.” The radio program and the company that owns it, Citicasters, is also named in the lawsuit.

NewsOK says the song was on sale from April 16 to June 29 of last year. The lawsuit was originally filed in June 2012 and has since moved to the federal courts. The lawsuit started at $15 million but has since been amended to an unknown amount.

Sweet Brown’s short clip yielded a bunch of catchphrases that have since made her famous enough to become a spokesperson for an Internet start up company.

Business Insider says the lawsuit against Apple may not hold up as The Digital Millennium Copyright Act protects companies from litigation if they take swift action to remove content that becomes part of a copyright dispute.

We don’t blame Sweet Brown one bit for taking action to protect her meal ticket. If you want to use her celebrity, you have to sign an agreement like WePay did. What’s WePay? Check out the ad after the jump.